Impact of testimony and prior knowledge on children’s beliefs about category homogeneity

Kelsey Moty, Lehigh University

Amanda Brandone, Lehigh University

Abstract

Previous work has shown that preschoolers—in comparison to
older children and adults—tend to view categories as homogeneous,
generalizing properties of individuals broadly to all category members (e.g.,
this dax has wings, so all daxes do). Here, we explore whether the testimony used
to describe category individuals as well as children’s prior knowledge of
categories attenuates their homogeneity expectations. Using a novel induction
task, 4 to 7-year-olds were asked to predict the distribution of properties among
members of familiar/unfamiliar animal categories based on a single exemplar.
Exemplars were introduced as “special” to half of participants.
Preliminary findings (N = 71) suggest that prior knowledge may contribute to
beliefs about category homogeneity: responses for familiar animals varied
appropriately given the real-world prevalence of each property whereas children
overestimated the property’s prevalence for unfamiliar animals. The
complete dataset will speak to how language choice in testimony shifts
children’s beliefs about homogeneity.